When not working on my own art I spend a great deal of time out and about looking at other work.

Friday, June 15, 2012

Old Cape Cod

Old Cape Cod, mixed
media on canvas 10”x10”

What can you do with a stack of vintage postcards from the
1960’s and 1970’s?With a bit of Patti Page playing in
your head, you start to cutting and gluing.I realized that one of the postcards even had a long lost
motel in East Sandwich where my family first rented a cottage in the
1970’s.That was before we moved
to Cape Cod.

The postcards I used are more than vintage, they also show
something that is now all but lost.The Cape Cod I remember had hundreds of small summer cottages.Cottages covered with weathered cedar
shingles.There usually was a
white picket fence overgrown with salt spray roses (Rosa rugosa).The
cottages were “quaint” and “rustic.”They were filed with furniture that was often one step away from the
dump.There was no cable, no
phones and no air conditioning.When it was hot, you opened a window and hoped for a sea breeze.And there was that smell of damp, the
mix of humid summer air, a touch of mildew, and a bit of salt marsh.Lift up the rag rug and you might
disturb an earwig.Today those
cottages are mostly history.Torn
down to their foundations and converted into ordinary houses with little charm.If the remodeled cottages are rented
out to tourists, they come with all the comforts they now demand.Cable, wifi and high thread count duvet
covers in place of old chenille bedspreads.

If you want to have a little of Old Cape Cod you can get a print or even laptop cases or an
iPhone cover from Society
6.It’ll look swell
with you madras plaid shorts.

About Me

I am an artist living in San Francisco. I work primarily in mixed media, collage and landscape painting. My work has included maps, postcard-themed art and mail art projects. In 2013 I began a series called Collagescapes where I start painting paper with areas of color representing the palette of a specific place. Next I cut the paper into hundreds of small pieces, randomize the pieces and then reassemble them in various geometric patterns. Collagescapes are both landscape paintings and collages. They appear abstract but retain the color palette of the places they represent.
My new series is Time Travel Photos — handmade photo collages showing places in San Francisco where I have cut and sliced present-day photographs and interwoven photos of nature representing how the City looked before Europeans arrived. Each is an image of an urban space with the natural past emerging through. For example, creeks once again run through the Mission and dunes reappear in Golden Gate Park and tidal flats fill the Embarcadero.
My work has shown in over 40 venues, primarily in California but also in other locations in the United States and abroad. My artwork can be viewed at tofuart.com